Local Futures – Planet Local Summit, A celebration of the worldwide localisation movement
Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October 2023
Event description.
About
The Planet Local Summit is a project of Local Futures, an international nonprofit and pioneer of the localisation movement. The Summit will shine light on localisation as a solution-multiplier and bring attention to the worldwide grassroots movement that is unfolding. Central to this movement is a focus on the local food economy, but it also embraces local business alliances, decentralised renewable energy systems, local finance and more.
Building on Local Futures’ networking and movement-building endeavours over four decades, the Summit will bring people together face-to-face from every continent, with the aim of forging a broad, international and visionary agenda for change.
About Local Futures
Local Futures is dedicated to renewing ecological and social wellbeing by strengthening communities and local economies worldwide. Our films, books, toolkits, blog, podcast, webinars, workshops, conferences and campaigns are helping to map out a realistic path towards a more truly sustainable future.
Our award-winning film, The Economics of Happiness, has inspired people across the world to rethink the global economy and explore alternatives that nurture human and planetary wellbeing. The film gave rise to an International Economics of Happiness Conference Series, comprising twenty-five public events in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia over eight years. These conferences stimulated debate, spread awareness about economic decentralisation, and birthed the International Alliance for Localization.
With the Covid pandemic, the conference series morphed into World Localization Day – an annual online and in-person celebration of the worldwide localisation movement, with participation from people and groups on every continent. The month-long campaign, held around June 21 every year, celebrates the plethora of local initiatives already making change from the ground up, and strengthens their collective voice.
Our latest film, Planet Local: A Quiet Revolution, gives voice to a growing number of people building a more beautiful world. Featuring grassroots activists from every continent alongside internationally known figures like Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Maté, Naomi Klein, Jane Goodall and others – all of them bringing inspiration and clarity to a world full of dark news.
Watch for free here or on YouTube.
What is localisation?
Localisation is bringing the economy home – back to a human scale. It is the process of building economic structures that allow the goods and services a community needs to be produced locally and regionally whenever possible. It is about shortening the distance between producers and consumers by encouraging diversified production for domestic needs, instead of specialised production for export.
Localisation does not mean eliminating international trade, or reducing all economic activity to a village level. It’s about shifting power from transnational corporations to genuinely democratic institutions, while simultaneously building up regional self-reliance. This requires collaboration and information-sharing between regions and cultures, as well as international solidarity between civic society groups.
Localising economies can strengthen community cohesion and lead to greater human health and material wellbeing, while reducing pollution and the degradation of the natural world. From farmers’ markets and community gardens to credit unions, from local governance and alternative learning institutions to small business alliances and co-ops, local economies create networks of place-based relationships that affirm our innate desire for connection to each other and to the earth.
It’s the economics of happiness.
What to expect
- In-depth critique of corporate globalisation and its “green” alternatives
- Real-life strategies for systems change
- First-hand accounts of inspiring localisation initiatives from around the world
- Roadmaps for human and ecological wellbeing
Summit themes
Rethinking food and farming ● The roots of depression ● Climate and carbon ● “Insane trade” ● Indigenous wisdom ● Speed, scale and sanity ● The role of technology ● The meaning of education ● Activism ● Beyond the corporate media ● Healing ourselves, healing our communities ● The future of finance ● Spirituality and personal transformation
To find out more about this summit including speaker lineup and full programme – click here